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Why did Dylan Holloway jump from 6 goals and 9 points to 26 and 63 last year? Nothing in his resume suggested that was coming. Who expected Tage Thompson to suddenly erupt with 38 goals when he did? Five years ago thinking Gustav Forsling the best D on a cup winner? Yeah, right. Player performance can be as much about opportunity and circumstance as it is skill.

I know you made reference to “there’s more to it” but it’s an X for me because assist totals for me aren’t “more to it.” They are simply “it.” That’s raw offence. ”Goals scored that’s 34 in, 46 out. It’s not 20 or 30 the defence needs to make up, it’s 12. But it’s way more complicated than that. How will the moves affect the power play, the PK, line chemistry, line matchups, situational deployments, the forecheck, the backcheck, puck battles, rush offence, rush defence, exits and entries, the cycle game, getting to the net, blocking out, D zone structure, the room…?” This reads pretty firmly as “it’s 12 goals, for offence, and then other stuff” I just disagree. Assist deserve to be included with / attributed to raw offence. The “goals” we will need to replace. It’s not chemistry, or rush offence, or any of the stuff you mentioned it’s offence. The calculation doesn’t start at 34 in, 46 out. I don’t think it’s just an oversimplification - I think it’s an oversimplification the the extent of being meaningless

I’m not sure how this is much different from my post you disagreed with. Honing it down to simply goals scored by Peterka and stopped by Kesselring is dramatically oversimplifying how hockey works. .

Yes he did ask for a trade before the injury. He asked for a trade in 2020 upon hearing of the Adams plan to long form rebuild in line with EEE

I thought Eichel did request a trade before the surgery palava happened? And that was part of the issue, and why they were relcutant to let him have the surgery

Awful ordering. The McNabb trade worse than ROR is a farce and the Kane trade was far closer to a great big heap of nothingness than our very worst trade. The jets got nothing from it either. The build didn’t fail because we lost a 1st round pick they don’t even take issue with the players - their take away is it tried to “win too quickly.” After all we’ve seen, for that to be the takeaway is high comedy. Our issue has been the exact opposite

I am not a big fan of Sabbath or Metal but Paranoid is one of the catchiest songs ever written. I think you could also look at some early Sabbath and make a case for proto punk as well as Grunge with the detuned guitars. One thing about Ozzy is that he is one of the few human beings who I think has reached cartoon status. I don't mean this in a negative way. To reach human cartoon status you have to be instantly recognizable, be totally unique and be well liked in spite of any flaws they may have. Some people have actually been turned into cartoons like Mike Tyson. I think Mr T might have been a cartoon. Hulk Hogan was a manufactured character but he certainly sells it. Muhammed Ali could have been one. There are not many individual musicians you could point to and say they are cartoon status. Maybe Elton John because he is very famous and had the costumes. It's hard to put my finger on another one. Alice Cooper would be in the same mold as Ozzy just not sure if as many people would recognize him. Anyway Rock on Ozzy.

For me, trading away Reinhart was the biggest WTF by these arrogant dopes. Drill another well my a$$.

That was the best part about trading Eichel- you don’t trade playmaking, just “goals” What did Eichel have his last year? 2 goals? 2 goals out. Mathing. - - - You don’t want to trade a guy like Norris cause his goals assist ratio is too weighted towards goals you trade playmakers or guys with high assist totals - the “goals out” calculation doesn’t need to take that into equation so it’s a pretty damn good strategy Honestly have we considered moving Dahlin? Had we moved Dahlin for Doan we’d only have been out 6 goals. That would have been my move Peterka had 41 assists last year. The Kesselring, Doan, Norris combo had 47, combined Peterka had 41 assists last year. jAsh Norris has 67, in 8 years since being drafted

Preventing 10 goals is just as good.

Databases are weird. I just ordered something from a company that I made another purchase from ten years ago, when I lived at another address. I forgot I ever worked with them before. I filled out my billing address and delivery address and when they shipped the item, instead of using what was newly entered in my profile, they sent it to my old address. Interestingly the person who lives at my old address had enough initiative to return the item to sender. It arrived there (Orchard Park, btw, four miles from my mom's house) Monday. I sent them emails and called them and hopefully they'll send it to the right address now.

Happy reading. The most painful is the drafting, I’d add the 2nd rd picks are even worse than the failed 1st rounders. 15 2nd rd picks and only 2 good players in JJP and Compher and both were traded away. UPL and Samuelsson have been more bad than good by a wide margin and the rest from Hurley to Leinonen are busts or soon will be. Hard to build a team this way.

Well yes, and I've certainly never relied on "numbers". I've always argued about line chemistry and roster make up and imo it's still inherently flawed. I like Kesselring and am hopeful for him. Timmins idk. I'm not so sure he's better than Clifton was. We shall see. There is hope for a Power/Kesselring pairing however. The top 6 is problematic to me though. It's fully reliant on Quinn bouncing back and more and on 2 kids emerging and I think it's too soon for them to do that. Kulich and Benson should be third line players right now not top line, but that's what the Sabres keep doing. Thompson can and likely will score a bunch of goals anytime anywhere, but aside from the relative consistency of Tuch, the rest of the top 6 is a big question mark.

Well that's certainly what Ottawa was thinking. I stand by my prediction that this year's excuse is going to be injuries and a lot of "if only..........hadn't missed those games" and then they stay the course yet again. A self fulfilling prophecy.

He joined Black Sabbath in 1968 and must of only been like 16, they were pretty popular shortly after so he has been a celebrity his entire adult life. So no need to drive himself I guess

On paper the Sabres are the worst goaltending group in the East and probably the NHL. Lyon is a career journeyman who has played for 5 teams and never established himself as a starter in the NHL. The last two years in Det were his best opportunity and he gave them Reimer level goaltending. Levi, besides his first games after college, has shown very little that he’s ready to be a full time NHL goalie. UPL has had one good season in 5 pro seasons and 3 of the other 4 seasons were lousy at best. It’s possible one of the 3 steps up and gives the Sabres NHL average goaltending. If that happens, the Sabres will be improved, but I’m not optimistic.

Id have more hope. In particular I think Wilford being allowed to continue on is shocking neglect. He's managed 1 good defensive year in the last 4 but other than that has been terrible and I think he contributes to both the defense and the forwards supporting them being bad. Sabres have been in the bottom 3rd of the league in goals against in 3 of his 4 years and yet here we go, year 5.

I caved and called back. Fighting all my biggest urges, I politely asked her to lose my number. So the harassment angle is the next approach if I get even one more call. I love how they can get my number but not his. It always amazes me how these contact databases get all messed up. I routinely get mail from infiniti (or one of the car companies, forget which one) at my home address for my other brother. He never lived in this state, yet they somehow put his name on my address.

George Kooymans - Golden earring died as well today at 77. Apparently had ALS since 2020.

It is, and the Sabres retained all the coaches that have a devil of a time figuring out how to use the ingredients they've been given. We'd better hope they do, because the coaches can't be expected to put them in position to do so. How much different this off-season would feel if Wilford, Appert, Ellis, and possibly Bales were gone.

Sabres goaltending probably has the lowest floor. Probably not the lowest ceiling.

Pull some random overseas phone # out of your head and tell them you expect that's likely the best way to reach him? When they call back again, give them a different random overseas phone # and tell them that THAT's what you expect is likely the best way to reach him. After 2 or 3 go arounds, they should leave you alone.

The biggest issue UPL has, and on many levels it's not a good one to have, is between the ears. He seems to need outside reinforcement to believe in his own abilities. And, when things start going ferkakta he isn't going to get positive outside reinforcement. Is it something he can't/ won't be able to overcome; not necessarily. He did an admirable job of getting beyond the mental reluctance to push his hips to their limit after surgery that season that they just missed the playoffs by 1/2 points. During that stretch and 1 or 2 others, he's shown an ability to truly believe in himself. Maybe he can do it again. For our sakes and the Sabres sake, we really need him to do that again. When he's been focused, he's shown an ability to move post to post that few men that big can do. But he's too easily taken off his game and then he overplays pucks and he gets too low in his stance and suddenly the glove misses things it should catch and the area above his shoulder and below the crossbar (which should NEVER be open when he's square due to his size) open up. The level that having his issues lie in his head is good (possibly great) is that if he can ever consistently get out of his own head, he has the physical tools to be one of the best in the entire league. And, the switch from subpar to superb can LITERALLY be like a light switch going on. If he were on my payroll, would insist he see a sports psychologist (maybe Ryan Miller's is taking new clients) because whatever money that costs would be 100% worth it should the lightbulb not only go on, but stay on. IF all 3 guys they have bring their A games, the Sabres could have one of the 5 best goaltending situations in the entire league. But, as of now, we should expect about the 22nd or so best goaltending situations because that's a smidge better than the 3 they have have been when looking at their entire bodies of work and 2 of the 3 are getting closer to / into their primes.

We all don’t know what the full story is about his disgruntlement because we are not insiders. What we do know is that he was determined to get out and had a contract status where he was going to be a UFA in another season. So he was dealt. I thought the return was fair and the added players should be contributors. It’s not a surprise that even well run franchises have some players who prefer a change of workplaces for a variety of reasons. It’s part of the work landscape. I have no ill-will towards him. I preferred to keep him but it didn’t work out that way. So be it. My attention is now on Kesserling and Doan.

I don't think it's hope in this case. I'd classify it as "expectation", not hope. In the case of older players repeating career years, yeah that's hope. You hope they can reach that level again. But for younger players, it's just expectation and the reality of how players progress. They usually don't peak with less than two seasons total played. I don't take issue with Adams expecting ("hoping") that these young players will improve.... because they should improve. You expect them to; they don't come in as a finished product. Where I do take issues with Adams and his attitude towards the younger players is him continuing to have such a large young core AND not sufficiently supplementing it with enough of the right veterans to show the kids how it's done. It's semantics, but I think it's an important distinction to make. Also, I'd prefer to never be put in a position of defending KA ever again 🤢